Loyalist demonstrators burn two Irish tricolours at Belfast flag protest

@Seanmelb & Seamus60: You guys must be sleeping because just yesterday on this site i condemned these thugs in the strongest possible terms (something you seem incapable of when Republican rabble decide on a bit of recreational rioting.). I live in a Loyalist area and i have no problem condemning thuggish behaviour where i see it. A thug is a thug regardless of which community they belong. Seamus60, there are still plenty of internment bonfires. Surely you remember the one in your neck of the woods a little while back when bigots went to St Columb's Cathedral and stole a portrait of a Protestant bishop and burned it, pride of place on their republican bonfire? I regret & condemn the killing of any innocent person by plastic bullets but lets be honest here, fortunately no-one has been killed here by a baton round since the 80's. Don't pretend things haven't changed since then.

torytory: Go get your dole check Hurry on now.

Torytory. It was nothing more than was to be expected by protestants.Why would the flag fly more in Belfast than it does in the rest of your UK. However the over the top reaction have given SF the pedestal to claim they are making big changes.

Sensationalism from Warrenpoint, harbinger of hate and Anglophobia. The DUP & UPP merely highlighted the complicity of the Alliance Party in ensuring the republican proposal went through - the bone of contention amongst unionists or the unionist community is the implicit unionism in the Alliance Party itself: it is the protestant vote the Alliance relies upon. The pamphleteers are critical of the Alliance for not voting against the proposal (somewhat unfairly in my view); the perception of unionists is the Alliance Party have acted perfidiously. The main unionist parties are capitalise on it.

Citizen69. Not very many compared to the past because SF have put an end to most of the bonfires in Aug. They cream off the money that councils now provide for alternatives that no one avails of. But hey they`re all happy without the bonfires. How about you answer my question in regards to how many protestants have been beat to death by RUC thugs ? how many killed by plastic bullets ? Bigroty is a 2 way street but your lack of an answer to the above tells its own story of victimhood.

Who's condoning riots and wanton destruction? Certainly not I; what I pointed out was the obvious: that such blatantly provocative measures will undoubtedly have deleterious effects.

Terror chief Peter Robinson initiated some diplomatic terrorism ,urged his billy boys to target Alliance offices with hate letters, of course we all know that is a green light to the loyalist thugs to burn and then we all become terrorist targets.Something similar to the terroristUWC strike but much less supported.

Curtis, stop being moronic. Republicans have a numerical majority in the Belfast Council - their vote is symptomatic of wanton majoritarian rule. Given the very delicate dynamic that exists in NI, the bloc parties of republican & unionist have to defer to the sensitivities of minority interests so a semblance of a polity can be maintained. Sinn Fein have effectively bullied the minority unionist community by bludgeoning through a needless & completely trivial proposal that has no purpose other than a) massage Sinn Fein's bigotry and b) stoke animosity in and amongst the community. So many dullards have banally cited the supposed democratic mandate when the fact of the matter is that none exists, what's happened in Belfast is an inversion of democracy where the dominant group has bullied and antagonised a minority political group. That simply isn't on in a modern democratic state, nor can it be maintained in a combustible province like NI. This is gross politicking by Sinn Fein.

always?allways is a long time,it took the jews 2000 years,time yet outspans.

Why are The orange thugs getting a softly softly approach from the PSNI/RUC where are the watre cannons and the rubber bullets. Maybe justice is selective in the "statelet". WE have the typical mindless drivvel from torytory and citizen69 who fail to condemn the illegal acts of their bigoted fascist brothers.

“The usual dross on Irish Central want to pontificate about 'loyalist thuggery' and yet the consequences of the Council vote was inevitable.” So because there was a democratic vote the loyalist are justified in their ostensibly illegal violence (although the PSNI/RUC thugs seem deeply sympathetic) – got it. You have to love how the british endlessly pontificate about “democracy” until it does not work in their favor (for instance Iran in 1952 when the toppled a peaceful democratic regime to facilitate the theft of resources).

@seamus60: And how many Union & Northern Ireland flags are burnt every year on internment bonfires in August without so much as a mention from yourself, warrenpoint or anybody else here? Oh, and not surprisingly, no mention of this weeks attacks on Protestant churches, orange halls and memorials to innocent victims of Republican terrorism either. But of course you'd all rather play the victimhood card rather than face up to the reality that bigotry is a two way street in N.I.

The usual dross on Irish Central want to pontificate about 'loyalist thuggery' and yet the consequences of the Council vote was inevitable. The vote in the Belfast Council was an elaborate piece of politicking by Sinn Fein, and lo and behold it has handsomley paid dividends. It was a piece of calculated duplicitousness to solicit the ire of a disenfranchised working class. Sinn Fein are the bigots: there was no need for them to push this proposal through, it was done to massage their own bigotry and to stoke hatred in an already fragile region.

Spot on Warrenpoint00. How many tricolours burned on every bonfire during the summer months, without a mention.

Nothing new in this story about the same old bigoted terrorist the so called guardians of Ulster.The terror activities of the loyalist domain occur frequently here in the North East of Ireland every July though not reported accurately on by the pro unionist media. That those pro union political leaders who encouraged terror tactics against those who disagreed with their bigoted pro union agenda is nothing new to those of us who live here in the North east of Ireland..A protestant parliament for a protestant people is still on the agenda here and that will give you an insight into the mentality of these people that we have to live with in this part of Ireland